Story City

—Story City, Iowa pop. 3,377

should be the name

of every city

every place with a door

every table.

Each time feet stand at the edge of a prairie.

Each time a hawk sits on a tangle of branches waiting

to bloom

or an eagle with wings tucked talons clinging

to a rock

in a spring river.

Story City should be the name

for everything awake. Whenever there is a song

and the smell of ashes.